Neurology is the study of disorders of the nervous system. A neurologist is a physician who diagnoses and treats nervous system disorders of the brain, spinal cord and nerves. This specialist deals with problems related to brain disease, disorders of the brain, spinal cord, and the nerves, and the blood vessels that provide circulation to these organs. A neurologist also treats specific diseases such as Bell’s palsy, cerebellar ataxia and meningitis.

Physicians in this specialty treat patients suffering from numerous diseases and illnesses, but some of the most common are stroke, guillain-barré syndrome, brain tumor, migraine, meningitis, seizure, parkinson's disease, epilepsy, cerebral palsy, coma, multiple sclerosis, alzheimer's disease, cluster headache, ischemic stroke, encephalitis, encephalopathy, botulism, chorea, lou gehrig's disease, and ataxia.

Once properly diagnosed, practitioners can perform numerous procedures on patients including electroconvulsive therapy and electroencephalogram (eeg).

To diagnose patients with possible illnesses and diseases, specialists will often perform one of many tests including cat scan of the brain, ct scan of the brain, mri scan of the brain, mri scan of the spine, magnetic resonance imaging (mri), computed axial tomography (ct or cat scan), myelogram, spinal tap, lumbar puncture (lp), electromyography (emg), myelography, positron emission tomography (pet scan), spinal puncture, nerve conduction velocity (ncv), electroencephalography, cerebral angiogram, electronystagmography (eng), ocular pressures, csf collection, and myogram.

Doctor density varies by specialty and location. The United States has 14,004 practicing neurologists. Broken out by state, neurology doctor density in Alabama is 196, in Alaska is 12, in Arizona is 258, in Arkansas is 90, in California is 1,553, in Colorado is 186, in Connecticut is 197, in Delaware is 35, in District of Columbia is 99, in Florida is 858, in Georgia is 354, in Hawaii is 47, in Idaho is 29, in Illinois is 555, in Indiana is 282, in Iowa is 122, in Kansas is 98, in Kentucky is 147, in Louisiana is 182, in Maine is 52, in Maryland is 380, in Massachusetts is 761, in Michigan is 444, in Minnesota is 366, in Mississippi is 98, in Missouri is 329, in Montana is 40, in Nebraska is 70, in Nevada is 74, in New Hampshire is 65, in New Jersey is 426, in New Mexico is 73, in New York is 1,289, in North Carolina is 348, in North Dakota is 41, in Ohio is 490, in Oklahoma is 105, in Oregon is 204, in Pennsylvania is 655, in Rhode Island is 76, in South Carolina is 164, in South Dakota is 36, in Tennessee is 249, in Texas is 788, in Utah is 84, in Vermont is 47, in Virginia is 326, in Washington is 263, in West Virginia is 66, in Wisconsin is 298, and in Wyoming is 14.